Android G2 Hands On: Close to Perfection — HTC and Google are getting closer to perfection with the new Android G2, the HTC Magic. Nice finish, great form factor. Check out our video, including the obligatory comparison with Apple's iPhone, and hands-on impressions:

50% of Charges Against Pirate Bay Dropped — What has been shown in court today is that the prosecutor cannot prove that the .torrent files he is using as evidence actually used The Pirate Bay's tracker. Many of the screenshots being used clearly state there is no connection to the tracker.

How Facebook is taking over our lives — President Obama used it to get elected. Dell will recruit new hires with it. Microsoft's new operating system borrows from it. No question, Facebook has friends in high places. Can CEO Mark Zuckerberg make those connections pay off?

Startup Sues Google Using Microsoft's (Outside) Lawyers — By Jessica E. Vascellaro — TradeComet.com LLC, which operates a small search engine for industrial products, has sued Google, alleging that the search giant tried to put it out of business by increasing its advertising prices.

Anonymous Caller? New Service Says, Not Any More — A new service set for launch Tuesday allows cellphone users to unmask the Caller ID on blocked incoming calls, obtaining the phone number, and in some cases the name and address, of the no-longer-anonymous caller.

Battery, RAM, and HD access on new 17-inch Macbook Pro — Apple's new unibody 17-inch MacBook Pro began shipping earlier this week and a new tear-down of the high-end notebook reveals the steps needed to access the system's internal memory, hard drive, and battery components.

Apple absent from universal phone charger push — Although AT&T and several other iPhone partners joined an industry initiative to standardize mobile phone chargers over the next few years, Apple has yet to follow suit and may remain committed to its proprietary dock-connector interface .

Microsoft in talks to acquire local startup 3DV Systems — The first Israeli exit of 2009 is hitting the road. Software giant Microsoft is negotiating to acquire the Israeli startup 3DV Systems for about $35 million, despite the alarming condition of the global economy and grim forecasts of more pain to come.

New tech start-ups can rise from the economy's ashes — SAN FRANCISCO — It's boom — and bust — for Silicon Valley companies these days. Literally. — Facing their worst economic climate since the dot-com bust in the early 2000s, high-tech companies are treating 2009 with dread …

1000 is the new 10 — Ever wish you could see more than just ten local search results at once? Us too. — So we've added a search layer for local search results that activates when there are more relevant results than we can show on one page. Instead of just plotting the first page …

Analyst: Declines in Mac, iPod sales isn't so bad — When is negative growth a positive thing? In this economy, any growth that stays in-line with Wall Street expectations can be viewed as a good thing - though it's still too early to call. And that's how one analyst is looking at Apple's current quarter.

MySpace's Google Gravy Train Set to Stop Next Year — Midway through next year, Google's $900 million, 3.5-year search advertising deal with News Corp. and MySpace expires. What are the odds that Rupert Murdoch's social network gets anything close to that with a new contract? — Very, very low.

Tech Layoffs Surge to 300,000 — Layoffs in the tech sector are accelerating. It took exactly three weeks for tech layoffs to surge to 300,000, according to our Layoff Tracker. Since late January, when the tracker hit 200,000 layoffs, another 100,000 job eliminations have been announced or completed.

Still No Royalty Deal for Streaming Music Sites — The fate of Internet radio is still up in the air. — Web sites that stream music have been fighting with the recording industry for two years over the royalties that the sites must pay for each song they play.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 RTM Details — Although Microsoft has consistently asserted in public that Windows 7 will probably only be launched in 2010, the truth is they are rushing for a December 2009 release. How close are they? Well, one of Windows 7's key components, Internet Explorer 8 is almost ready for launch!

Future Shock for Internet Ads? — What does the Internet display-ad market have in common with Zimbabwe? — Both are printing nearly-limitless amounts of their main currency, vastly diminishing its value and undermining their future. The currency, for Web sites, is their ad inventory.

Get Satisfaction gets new CEO and funding, amid growth — [Disclosure: Get Satisfaction was founded by Thor Muller, who is an advisor to VentureBeat.] — Get Satisfaction, a company that aims to improve online customer service by letting the customers take over much of the process, has raised an additional $1.25 million in funding.

Google: The Case Against A Second Half Recovery — Time to take profits in Google (GOOG), advises ThinkEquity analyst William Morrison. — Morrison this morning cut his rating on the stock to “Source of Funds,” from Accumulate, and reduced his price target to $300 from $350.

The New b5media Revealed — The times are changing and so are the blog networks, something that appeared to be a solid business model a couple of years back, but now deemed a rough one if you want to succeed. One company above others are being mentioned whenever blog networks are branded as a failed idea, and that's b5media.

Spammers break Live Hotmail's CAPTCHA yet again — The battle by Microsoft to secure its Live Hotmail system from spammers appears to have failed yet again with the news that the latest version of its CAPTCHA authentication system has been broken. — According to a detailed analysis …

A Virtual Unknown — So, the Internet walks into a bar. — The bar is in New York's Chinatown. It's a recent Saturday afternoon. It looks beer-stained and sweaty with the lights on, packed with plastic folding chairs and power cords. A giant disco ball hangs above an audience of 425 who are all on their MacBooks.